1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ionizer control system for allowing various types of data to be transmitted and received between an ionizer, an ion monitor, and a server for controlling the ionizer and the ion monitor, through the use of a short-distance wireless communication standard, such as Bluetooth (a registered trademark of the Bluetooth SIG, Inc).
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacturing processes of semiconductors and liquid crystal devices, in order to prevent elements from being broken or fine particles from adhering thereto due to static electricity, an ionizer is mounted on the ceiling of a clean room, or in a clean booth, a clean tunnel, a manufacturing apparatus, or the like to remove static electricity from an object.
However, with a corona discharge ionizer that causes a corona discharge by applying a high-voltage to the emitters (emitting electrodes) to thereby generate positive or negative ions, the positive/negative ion balance may slightly change depending on an installation environment; thus, the static electricity of an object cannot be efficiently removed in some cases. Consequently, the use of such an ionizer generally requires appropriate adjustment of the ion balance.
Conventionally, a method for adjusting the ion balance, for example, by artificially controlling a positive or negative voltage to be applied to the emitters has been employed. As a result, enormous amounts of time and effort have been required for adjustment operations when a large number of ionizers are installed.
In addition, since a corona discharge ionizer may decrease in performance or may change in ion balance due to age-related deterioration of the emitters, a type of ion monitor called a xe2x80x9ccharge-plate monitorxe2x80x9d is used to periodically measure the density of the positive and negative ions in the vicinity of the surface of an object from which static electricity is to be removed, thereby evaluating the performance of the ionizer or adjusting the magnitude and the time of a voltage to be applied to the emitters. These periodic measurement/adjustment operations, however, have been great burdens on the user.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an ionizer control system that uses a short-range wireless communication means implemented with, for example, Bluetooth (registered trademark) between an ionizer, an ion monitor, and a server, and that automatically evaluates the performance of the ionizer and the ion monitor and monitors the operational state thereof and adjusts the ion balance.
To this end, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ionizer control system. The ionizer control system includes an ionizer for removing static electricity from an object by generating positive and negative ions through corona discharging, an ion monitor for evaluating the performance of the ionizer, and a server for managing and controlling the ionizer and the ion monitor.
The ionizer, the ion monitor, and the server each include wireless communication means that complies with a short-distance wireless communication standard. The server and the ionizer transmit and receive ionizer control data therebetween via the wireless communication means, and the server and the ion monitor transmit and receive ion-monitor control data therebetween via the wireless communication means.
The communication standard for the wireless communication means is in no way limited to Bluetooth (registered trademark).
In the present invention, the ionizer control data includes the magnitude and the time of a positive or negative voltage applied to the emitters of the ionizer. In addition, when the ion monitor is a charge-plate monitor, the ion-monitor control data may include a charge start voltage and a charge stop voltage.
Preferably, the ion monitor transmits measured data to the server via the wireless communication means, and the server creates the ionizer control data in accordance with the measured data, transmits the ionizer control data to the ionizer via the wireless communication means, and displays the measured data on a display.
Preferably, the ionizer and the ion monitor each transmit operational state data indicating its own operational state to the server via the wireless communication means, and the server displays the operational state data on a display.
The ionizer control system may include a plurality of the ionizers. In this case, of the plurality of ionizers, one ionizer capable of directly communicating with the server via the wireless communication means is set as a master and the other ionizers are set as slaves. The ionizer control data for the slaves and the operational state data of the slaves are transmitted to and received from the server via the master.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ionizer control system. The ionizer control system includes an ionizer for removing static electricity from an object by generating positive and negative ions through corona discharging, and an ion monitor for evaluating the performance of the ionizer and managing and controlling the ionizer.
The ionizer and the ion monitor each include wireless communication means that complies with a short-distance wireless communication standard. The ion monitor and the server transmit and receive ionizer control data therebetween via the wireless communication means. The ionizer control data includes data for controlling the magnitude and the time of a positive or negative voltage applied to an emitter of the ionizer.
In this case, preferably, the ionizer transmits operational state data indicating its own operational state to the ion monitor via the wireless communication means, and the ion monitor displays measured data and the operational state data on a display.
The ionizer control system according to the present invention can automatically evaluate the ionizers and the ion monitor, evaluate the operational states thereof, and adjust the ion balance through short-distance wireless communication means. The ionizer control system can eliminate a need for a complicated manual operation for adjusting the ion balance, when, in particular, a great number of ionizers are installed.